Book: Zombie Zero: The First Zombie
Author: J.K. Norry
Genre: Horror/Apocalyptic
Release Date: 7/1
The winds of change reek of rotting flesh...
When Mother Nature calls, everyone must stop to listen. Humans have gone too far; and in going too far, they have brought the wrath of the very planet down upon them. Ramblers roam the land, looking to eat or be eaten. Howlers hunt the humans, their superior strength becoming overwhelming odds as the apocalypse takes its toll on every nation. Will Mother Nature have mercy in the end? Or will everyone fall at the hands of Zombie Zero?
Buy it now at the Kindle store: Zombie Zero: The First Zombie http://mybook.to/ZombieZero1
Excerpt from the book:
Ryan put his hand over the lighted screen. The steel slid aside, and the general almost had his gun in his hand before he realized that it wasn’t time. He relaxed and followed them up a short hallway. There were three rooms along it, each sealed behind bulletproof glass in an airtight vacuum. Each lab had three such rooms, able to contain sickness or violence or other things less easily explained. The general passed the first room as the sergeant approached the third, and he saw that it was empty. He heard the disgusted sounds of fevered chewing; they stopped as Ryan pressed a lighted circle on the pad that was mounted to the door frame. He heard the sergeant cry out.
“Simms!” he shouted. “Simms, is that you? Are you okay?”
The sergeant whirled on Ryan just as the general reached his side. He had made note as he passed; the second room had been empty as well.
“That’s my man in there!” the sergeant shouted, looming over the doctor menacingly. The general moved between them before glancing over his shoulder at the third room.
There were actually two men in there, if you wanted to call them that. One was nearly naked, the hospital gown that he was wearing thrown over one wide shoulder like a cape. His limbs seemed unnaturally long, and the muscles were stretched taut over them in what looked like a painful way. If he had skin, it had become the transparent sheath that held in the vast bloodied network of fat and vein clinging to his exposed sinew; more likely the only parts of its skin still remaining were the ghastly hunks of it that hung from him, swinging with his movements.
The general couldn’t see his face, buried as it was in the other man’s bloodied mess of a torso. He could see that his fingers were more like talons, as they raked fresh red dashes across the other man’s chest and face; he could see that his gown and arms and neck were covered in blood, and that it was splashed about the room. The general could see something else: the other man was also different, having gone through some unique metamorphosis of his own.
Lying on his back, the other man’s clothes were the bloody and tattered remains of base-issue fatigues. The general didn’t recognize him, but he would have if the troop had been familiar. His face was mostly human, except for the grayish skin, rusted red eyes and sharp biting teeth that he was showing every time he would lift his head from the floor. He wasn’t grimacing in pain, or fighting the other man off; instead he lay on his back, a puddle of his own blood on the tiled floor around him. He seemed to be writhing with pleasure, and his hand was on the back of the other man’s head as he buried his face further into his guts.
The troop being eaten lay his head back on the floor. His skull lolled with apparent pleasure; if the general squinted enough, it looked as though the two of them were both throughly enjoying a spectacularly intimate moment. As he watched, the one doing the eating pulled his face from the purple and red mess of his meal and looked up at the man he had been chewing on. The troop lifted his head from the floor, smiled a dreamy sharp-toothed smile at the other man, and pressed his head back into the open cavity of his own belly.
“Simms!” The sergeant moved past the doctor and the general to press his hands against the glass.
“He can’t hear you,” Ryan said calmly from behind him. “Nothing gets in or out of these chambers unless we want it to, even sound.”
The sergeant pounded on the glass. The ghastly pair went on eating and being eaten. He whirled on the doctor. Somehow he had his sidearm in his hand, although the general hadn’t seen him draw. He wasn’t pointing it threateningly at anyone, but holding it at the ready by his hip.
“Open this door, doctor,” the sergeant gritted through clenched teeth.
Ryan lifted an eyebrow, more curious than afraid. He glanced at the general. The general let his gaze drift from the sergeant to the grisly scene behind glass to the scientist. He nodded.
The doctor shrugged, then placed his hand over the lighted screen. The door slid aside, and the sergeant moved into the room. As soon as his foot cleared the doorway, he began shouting; at the same time the general placed his hand over the control panel.
“Get away from him, you-” The sergeant’s words were lost as the door slid shut behind him. The general moved closer to the glass and the doctor, and they watched. At the sound of the sergeant’s voice, the creature that had been on all fours eating the other raised his head. He turned his face to the sound, and even the general gasped at the sight.
All of his teeth were sharp and jagged, and he was still chewing on some piece of the other man. As his mouth opened and closed around the bloody glob, the general saw that there were several rows of those teeth. They were tilted slightly inward to better mash and push large chunks of flesh through the carnivorous maw. His skull had taken on a helmet shape, and thick bony ridges shaped his eye sockets and jaw. His eyes had become swirling slits the color of blood and sand hidden in the hollows of his bony brow. His skin was gone, or changed to transparency, and the general could see the muscles of his jaw working feverishly to rend the flesh in his mouth.
The sergeant’s first bullet ripped through the creature’s chest as it rose, and the second and third weren’t far behind or far away. By the time he reached his full height, a half-dozen holes riddled the thing’s broad sinewed naked chest. No blood flowed from the wounds, and the general could see globs of red and white streaming across the network of muscle and fat to fill the holes. The monster was whole again as he stepped toward the sergeant.
“Shoot it in the head, you fool,” the general murmured. He didn’t notice the doctor turning to look questions at him. It was as if the sergeant heard, although the next flashes of gunfire were as silent on this side of the glass as the first had been. He lifted the muzzle and shot the monster three times in the face. The first two bullets ripped shallow holes in his forehead as they glanced off, but the third plunged between jagged rows of teeth to bury itself deep in the creature’s mouth.
No one had noticed that the man on the floor had sat up while the creature was rising and advancing. As the monster went down, he lifted himself shakily to his feet. His own innards cascading from his belly, he wobbled and slipped in the blood at his feet. The sergeant rushed forward to catch him, wrapping arms quickly about the other man’s gory middle. All of the falling man’s weight went into the bite that he sank into the sergeant’s shoulder, and a burst of hot wet blood covered his face. They went down together, on top of the fallen monster, and half of the sergeant’s shoulder was gone by the time they hit the floor.
___________
You can read the entire prologue at J.K. Norry’s website http://www.jaynorry.com/zombie-zero.html
Walk between the worlds of angels and devils, explore the deeper meaning of demons, and face the beauty of the monster in all of us with author Jay Norry.
Stumbling Backasswards Into The Light is an uplifting autobiography, the tale of Jay's decision to question the answers he had been given and discover his own deeper meaning.
Walking Between Worlds is an exciting and action-packed philosophical adventure, a darkly humorous romp through heaven and hell and the deeper meaning of all of the worlds we walk between.
The Secret Society of Deeper Meaning is currently exploring the softer side of zombies, and the deeper meaning of the archetype: could Mother Nature be saving us from ourselves?
Sign up for free Zombie Zero short stories http://eepurl.com/T3NdD; and find out the deeper meaning of it all in Zombie Zero: The First Zombie
Jay lives in Northern California with three of his favorite angels, an unending to-do list and a mind full of thoughts about the deeper meaning.
Connect with J.K. Norry
Official Site http://www.jaynorry.com
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